By Oliver Wilmot

Laurentian’s men’s basketball team has joined the Best Buddies Club of Sudbury, in hopes of building a sense of community, friendship, and involvement between the two groups.

The first meeting took place on Oct. 4, and Tychon Carter-Newman, a fifth year economics student, said the collaboration is a “great idea… The more we’re involved in the community the better. I think it’s good for the team and the buddies together. We’re in a relationship where we can both grow together.”

Best Buddies is an organization that is mostly known in Europe and North America.

It has chapters on the elementary, secondary and post-secondary levels, and provides students with the opportunity to partner up with a Buddy, someone with a mental or developmental disability.

The objective is to create a friendship between the two so that they can both grow from their experiences.

“I’m so excited because I love basketball,” said Amanda, one of the Buddies. She also mentioned that she’d like to play against the Voyageurs someday with her team the Sudbury Lightning.